Cell preparation for analysis using a flow cytometer is commonly used for monitoring progression of disease, monitoring therapy, and for screening compounds that may be used to treat a disease.
Current techniques offer little in the way of automation for preparing samples and analyzing them using flow cytometry. Current protocols for cell preparation are mostly performed by human operators. This means that sample throughput is limited to what a single person or team of people can accomplish in a given amount of time.
Accordingly, there is a need for a process that has the advantage of generating less labor intensive and more reproducible results. It is advantageous to generate reliable data from highly controlled complex laboratory automation for the study of cell signaling and for drug screening either in the form of complete walk-away automation or with user intervention at defined points. A highly controlled automated process can increase throughput, reduce the potential for introducing variability into the results, and ensure that meaningful results are generated.